Drug Substance Manufacture Apprentice Review

I am in the Process Safety Group. We perform stability testing, be it thermal or gaseous, of substances that are to be used in processes on scale up. Day-to-day this involves experimental work on numerous pieces of equipment, lots of which is based on calorimetry, and I both perform and analyse the tests.

With little to no lab experience except what was taught in sixth form, every instrument was completely new to me and I have learnt how to use many different pieces of equipment. My ability to handle dangerous materials that we work with has increased dramatically and as such I am trusted to work completely independently.

The group I work with are all very different to one another and so work is always enjoyable because of all the different kind of interactions. the company culture is very centred around making a great place to work and as such I don't have any complaints from a personal level.

The university foundation degree I'm completing is quite well structured, with work being released almost all year round but distributed in a way to try and keep workload even, never building up too much. I have one study day a week which my team allow me to be flexible with, taking it on the day that suits me the most as long as I keep on top of work.

Everyone in the workplace is largely supportive of the apprentices. When I have needed to go outside of my role to gain laboratory experience other teams have been happy to show me the instruments they work with. My workplace mentor often checks on the work I'm doing and the uni work we do to offer support where necessary.

My training provider does offer significant support, performing weekly webinars where necessary to offer extra help and go into problems more thoroughly. Tutors usually reply quickly to queries when something isn't clear. We do not get much face to face support, with ~3/4 trips out to AstraZeneca and only 1 residential week throughout the year, however tutors are usually reachable in other ways.

As my role is very specialised, the lab skills we are required to learn for uni are far more generic, however it has offered exposure to experiments I would never usually perform in my role and so has given me more laboratory ability which would be useful I was to change roles. I definitely have learnt more about the company as a whole through research required for different modules with Uni.

Yes, there are lots. Some include the gym on site, the football pitch that can be booked out where inter-team games etc take place. There is an open group that gets together every month to try a different traditional restaurant. There is a culture connect team which I'm a part of that promotes inter-floor integration within our building.

Yes

AstraZeneca as a company is clearly both patient and employee oriented. They are focussed on getting the best medicine to patients and one of the main motivations for this is keeping employees happy to work there by striving for a great place to work. Everyone is very supportive of each other and always happy to help out.

Learn about the company before you join to know what kind of a company it is and the kinds of qualities in an employee they are looking for. When it comes to the interviews be yourself, because it is obvious when you don't fully mean what you are saying.